Sunday at Miller Park

We played at Miller Park on Sunday, but Shirley had a commitment that kept her from being there; so, I'm unable to post any photos. The photo above is one I "borrowed" of a new player that drove over all the way from Raleigh to play with our group. Michael Rozzo has been on our e-mail notification list for a long while, but he's never made the trip before.

We enjoyed having him join us and hope that he'll be able to make it fit his schedule again sometime. We also encouraged him to find a few players and a place to play in Raleigh so that we can make the trip in his direction. If you're near the Raleigh area and happen to be reading this, get in touch and we'll work something out.

In addition to Michael, we were happy to have Danny, Sue, Augustin, Juan, Marc, Bob, Fred,and Taylor. Danny&Sue did well as a team and the Hickory crowd of Augustin, Juan, and Marc ruled in triples. They seem to be getting better every week. Fred tried his hand at shooting and showed great promise. His style seems to be changing with experience.

Good crowd for Lincolnton play

It looks as though we hit upon a good combination of factors that encouraged a large turnout at our Lincolnton, NC, terrain. Saturday play, sunshine, a location that is somewhat central to the people who came, and maybe some (early) spring fever all contributed.

We started around 11:00 AM and finished up by truck headlights in near darkness. It's hard to say who the big winners were for the day. Maybe it's just me (Shirley would surely agree!), but it's getting very difficult for us to win consistently with the crowd we have playing now. Even some of our newest players are beginning to find themselves in the winners' circle quite often.

Miller Park on 2/13/2011

We really had a nice turnout on Valentine's Day Eve at Miller Park in Winston-Salem. Perhaps there's no better example of young love to be found than the pictures above of Taylor, Katie, and their almost-brand-new son, Cayden.

We were happy to have them and their friend, Trey, join us for Sunday's play. They all promised to return in the future.

We had two other walk-ups who played several games as well. Rocky and Shana seemed to enjoy our game and also promised to return soon.

One other walkup to mention-- Tony (who had to leave before the picture taking began) threw a few boules and vowed to come back when he has the time to stay for the afternoon. We look forward to it.

We also welcomed Terry (& Sue) back to club play for the first time since last November. They've just been so busy with work and Terry's other hobby (fishing in general and bass fishing in particular) that we've missed connecting with them for quite a while.

Nevin Park on 2/12/2011

There was quite a crowd of park enthusiasts at Nevin Park Saturday. Walkers, playground participants, disc golfers, picnicers, and petanquers came out to enjoy the sunshine. We had several interested onlookers who took our club business cards. Maybe a recruit or two in the future?

Weekday Play in Lincolnton

We were in Lincolnton Wednesday through Friday and happy to have players each of the three days. Augustin, Tom, Carol, Danny, and Sue all joined us on various days so we got a chance to get in some much needed practice. Notice the robin. Early spring coming to the Carolinas?

Saturday and Sunday

The plans for Super Bowl weekend play were for the group to play on Saturday in Charlotte and then take Sunday off in recognition of the fact that so many would be hosting or attending Super Bowl parties. Unfortunately, we got an e-mail late Friday from Ed & Anne who live in Charlotte within half an hour of our playing location at Nevin Park advising us that the courts would most likely be too wet for play. There was an on-and-off rain (mostly on) all day on Friday. We knew from previous experience that court drainage was poor. It was almost too wet for play on our last Nevin Park outing a couple weeks ago.

So, as much as it pained us, we sent out a last minute notice on Friday night cancelling Saturday's play. Not wanting an entire weekend to pass us by, we made contact with our friends Danny & Sue to play at our house in Lexington on Saturday afternoon. Our main court has a coarse gravel-fine gravel-oyster shell layered construction that usually allows play within minutes of rainstorms. We were able to play with no problems.

In the meantime, Bob Moyer from Winston-Salem had advised that he had no Super Bowl commitments for Sunday that would preclude him playing. So we called Sue Wien (Terry was fishing in Florida) for a fourth and played all afternoon Sunday, once again in Lexington, as well. Guys vs. Gals on Sunday. Shirley and Sue split the first two games against Bob and myself. We barely managed to pull out the third game for a narrow, hard fought victory for the guys. Shirley got a chance to be the shooter for the gals. Sue pointed very well even though she hadn't played in a while. See the last picture above for an example!